abuse – Peaceful Reader

Fragile by Lisa Unger

A friend lent this thriller to me and in between reading YA and elementary fiction, I slipped it in needing a dose of adult fiction. Lisa Unger is a new author to me and I liked her style. This book is about a small tow where everybody knows everybody. And everybody has a secret, and some of the secrets are pretty big.

This book spoke to me in a resounding voice about families and the strength they hold. How willing are you to believe in those that you love, your children or your spouse? Maggie, a psychologist, and her husband Jones, a detective on the local police force find out that Charlene, their son’s girlfriend and the daughter of an old high school classmate is missing and the search for her brings out all manner of long-forgotten ghosts.

There is a wide array of interesting characters involved including Marshall, the son of the town bully, who waits for his dad’s approval even as a high school student and even though he’s only ever been disappointed and hurt by his father. As the story plays out we discover bits of history and we come to understand that a classmates’ disappearance during high school has everyone reflecting on choices they’ve made. In alternating moments we have the opportunity to hear from several characters which help to paint a good picture of this town.

“She sat in her ticky-tack room, in her ticky-tack house, painting her nails iridescent green. She hated the tract house with all its perfectly square rooms and thin walls, identical to every third house in their development. It was like living in the box of someone else’s limited imagination. How could someone reach the height of her creativity in a drywall cage? She couldn’t. And she wouldn’t. She would be eighteen in six months. After graduation, she was so out of here. College? Another four years of indentured servitude, living by someone else’s arbitrary rules? No way. (Charlene, 19)

“Now that Marshall was nearly the same height and almost as strong as his father, Travis didn’t hit him often; Marshall wasn’t physically afraid of his father. It was the things he said that lay like bruises on Marshall’s skin, damaged his organs, poisoned his blood. That voice that was in his head all the time. He just couldn’t get it out. Even the competing voices-Aunt Leila, Mr. Ivy, Dr. Cooper-weren’t loud enough to drown him out lately.” (Marshall, 63)

“Because that was what it was, wasn’t it? Not just anger. Not a need to control in a way we most often mean it. Not a lack of love or understanding for their boy. It was fear. Fear that, after all the years of protecting his health, his heart, his mind, setting bedtimes and boundaries, giving warnings about strangers and looking both ways before crossing the street, it wouldn’t be enough. Fear that, as he stood on the threshold of adulthood, forces beyond their control would take him down a path where they could no longer reach him. (Maggie, 15)

I don’t know how or why some families have a tough road. Each child, each situation is different and it’s never easy to know what to do except love them unconditionally, both parents and children. This book is filled with flawed, interesting characters and a story that kept me turning pages.

True…sort of by Katherine Hannigan

Ahhh, what a week it’s been. I can’t get into it too much at this point but suffice it to say the love affair I have with my job has taken a huge hit in the last 10 days. While all that has been happening I’ve been reading this soothing and poetically written gem by Katherine Hannigan.

(2011)

355 pages

It’s not soothing as in everything is all hunky dory-the book has two major conflicts-but Hannigan has a unique style of writing. She’s also created a very quirky cast of characters. Delly (short for Delaware) Pattison has trouble not getting in little bits of trouble. She is picked on by a bully, Novello, who for the sake of loving Delly can’t help but be mean to her at this point in his life. It makes them miserable and includes some fierce wrestling/spitting matches on the playground. She also has run-ins with a local grocery store maven and Officer Verena Tibbetts has Delly on her “list of The Worst Children in River Bluffs.” (4)

Her reputation follows poor Delly wherever she goes even when she’s trying to help caged-in chickens at the county fair or borrowing a boat for a little river adventure. She gets fed up with her own ability to find trouble when she sees her mother cry over a recent incident. Delly vows to change her ways to make her mother proud. I like this thread of Delly’s tale as it shows a child’s thought process in trying to work out how and why her trouble happens.

Delly in her quest to have better days starts allowing her little brother, RB to hang with her more often. He is able to keep her calm in several situations and even teaches Delly about counting to keep calm. While her and RB are off trying for adventure without trouble-making they see a young boy, sad as can be, drive through town in a beat-up old green Impala. On Monday she finds out the boy is actually a girl named Ferris Boyd. Delly’s teacher, the wonderful Mr. Terwilliger, informs her that Ferris does not speak and is not to be touched. Hmm. Delly’s curiosity is peaked. Delly has her own vocabulary throughout, cataloged in a Delly Dictionary by Hannigan, which adds to her charming character:

After school Delly ran to Ferris Boyd. “Hey,” she said softly, and fell in beside her, like they’d been friends forever.
She waited till they were at the bridge to ask, “Ferris Boyd, did you see? I didn’t fight.” Then she told her, without saying a word, I heard you.
Ferris Boyd stopped and turned to Delly. her eyes were still sad, but there was something else in them. Something like a smile.
It was only a second. Her head went down again, and she was shuffling along the road.
It was all Delly needed. Ferris Boyd had heard her, too. “All right then.” She grinned. (168)

This tale gently shares many themes with the reader and would make a wonderful read-aloud to understand more about bullies, abuse, anger management, good teaching and the rough road to friendship. Students will cheer for Delaware Pattison.

“Happy Hallelujah”~ Delly

I was encouraged to pick up True because I loved Ida B, her first book.

Hannigan is an Iowa author!

Both books are green and share similar sentiments inside; “We care about the health of this planet and all of its inhabitants. So the first hardcover printing of this book used 100% postconsumer recycled paper (that means that no trees were cut down to create the paper). And that paper was processed chlorine-free, because when chlorine is used to bleach paper, the process creates toxic by-products called dioxins and furans that can make people and animals sick….”

A book company, Harper Collins, that I can fully support! How come more books aren’t produced in this method? To find out more information go to http://www.papercalculator.org.

emma and me by elizabeth flock + A Giveaway!!

emma and me (2004)

elizabeth flock

292 pages

I don’t even know where I picked this book up – it does have a second hand sticker on it- but one that I don’t recognize so I can only presume the book has had a history before it fell into my waiting hands. I love it when a book finds you at just the right moment in your life.

The opening sentences slam you:

“The first time Richard hit me I saw stars in front of my eyes just like they do in cartoons. It was just a backhand, though-not like when I saw Tommy Bucksmith’s dad wallop him so hard that when he hit the pavement his head actually bounced. I s’pose Richard didn’t know about the flips I used to do with Daddy where you face each other and while you’re holding on to your daddy’s hands you climb up his legs to right above the knees and then push off, through the triangle that your arms make with his. It’s super fun. I was just trying to show Richard how it works. Anyway, I learned then and there to stay clear of Richard.” (9)

As a reader I was stunned and sad but pulled in by this little voice of eight-year-old Carrie. The abuse she suffers at the hands of her stepfather and her mother’s neglect are juxtaposed around her original family story; one where happiness played an important role and her father was kind and playful. Flock twists the story from Toast, NC to a tiny mountain town where Carrie meets several unusual characters that see right through her family’s struggles. I can’t give you any more details so when you read it the story can unfold and surprise you.

I loved Flock’s writing style and would enjoy reading more of her work. Carrie’s voice will stick with me for a long time to come. Because this book has already been through several readers I want to keep it traveling along. I will send this book to one lucky reader leave me a comment about one striking childhood memory and I will pick one unique answer. Include your email and I will get the book to you quickly!

This book is on my TBR Pile Challenge and the first book I’ve read on my list. Lisa from Books Lists Life encouraged me to read it and it was a perfect book to start with- Thanks Lisa! I hope the rest of my choices thrill me as much as this one did!

*the book does have some pencil marking in it from a child’s drawing hand-this amused me as the story is about a child, it is only on the first few pages and does not interrupt the story in any way but thought I should mention it in case you are one of those paperback book swap people who like pristine books.*

Road to Tater Hill

by Edith M. Hemingway
2009
210 pgs

      I brought this one home from my recent large library book order that came three days before holiday break. I knew, from the description on Titlewave, it was one I wanted to read and it was worth it. My husband went to school at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, NC and he often regales us with interesting tales of living in this part of the South. Set in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina in 1963, Edith M. Hemingway draws on her own family’s experiences to create this tale.
     Annabel (Annie) and her mother are spending the summer with her grandparents while her dad is stationed oversees. Her mom is pregnant but the baby, born early, dies. Annie spends the summer missing this baby sister, Mary Kate, wondering what her days would be like if things had gone differently. She finds a nice sized rock and holds it like a baby, cuddling it, as she sits by the creek.   Her mother struggles and cannot get past the baby’s death, reeling in grief, forgetting she has a living daughter.   As Annie spends time by the creek, away from home, she meets a mountain women, Eliza McGhee who helps her come to understand her mother’s depression.
     Eliza is a most fascinating character and she slowly reveals her history to Annie. Through Miss Eliza’s revelations we learn of her abusive husband and death of her own child years earlier. Their relationship leads to Annie’s ability to help her own mother and also allows Annie to understand the other people in her life.
     Perfect Quote:

I was close enough now to see the woman sitting on the back stoop of her house with the door open behind her like a narrow slit leading to a dark cave. She reminded me of a character in some fairy tale I had read years ago-not a scary person, but someone who had lived through hard times. Her head was bent over an instrument that lay across her knees, and her face was hidden by the floppy folds of her sunbonnet. She bobbed her head to the rhythm of the music that she plucked from the strings. (58)

I loved Miss Eliza’s ability to envelope Annie into her life even though, previously, she shunned close relationships. Ostracised in her own community Miss Eliza deftly steps in and fills the gap in young Annie’s life. Annie leans on Miss Eliza for understanding and learns what it takes to be friend during difficult times; standing up for what is right and true. These two share a love of reading which is a wonderful connection-I loved Miss Eliza’s recollections of the librarian who brings books to her in prison.
When I get back to school I know I will be able to book talk this one right into an eager student’s hands.
Edith M. Hemingway’s website
Here is a good book trailer video.
Sherry at Semicolon liked it too!
Buy it for someone you love at an Indiebound store near you-Road to Tater Hill